sprite

→ Japanese: スプライト (supuraito)

→ Russian: спрайт (sprajt)

From Middle English sprite, spryt, spreyte, from Old French esprit (“spirit”), from Latin spiritus. Doublet of spirit, spiritus, spirytus, spright, and esprit.
(computer graphics): First used by Danny Hillis at Texas Instruments in the late 1970s.
(meteorology): An acronym for Stratospheric Perturbations Resulting from Intense Thunderstorm Electrification.

doublet

He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.

1803, William Blake, Auguries of Innocence:

(mythology) Any of various supernatural beings, loosely defined:

дух

a spirit; a soul; a shade; also, an apparition

An elf, fairy, or goblin; one with a small humanlike physical body.


Sterculius

(Roman mythology) The god of manure or fertilizer.


ichneumon

From Latin ichneumōn, from Ancient Greek ἰχνεύμων (ikhneúmōn, “tracker”), from ἴχνος (íkhnos, “track, footstep”).

der

(mythology) a legendary animal, which kills crocodiles and dragons


Bacchanalia

From Latin Bacchānālia (“feast of Bacchus”), plural of Bacchānal (“a place devoted to Bacchus”), from Bacchus (“the god of wine”), from Ancient Greek Βάκχος (Bákkhos).

(Greek mythology) A feast or an orgy in honor of Bacchus.


Bacchanalian

Near-synonyms: bacchic, bacchian; Dionysiac, Dionysian; dionysiac, dionysian

Even Bacchanalian madness has its charms.

1782, William Cowper, The Progress of Error:

(Roman and Greek mythology) Of or pertaining to the festival of Bacchus, relating to or given to reveling and drunkenness.


Odin

→ Chinese: 奧丁／奥丁 (Àodīng)

→ Japanese: オーディン

Learned borrowing from Old Norse Óðinn (whence Icelandic Óðinn, Norwegian Nynorsk Oden), akin to Old High German Wodan and Old English Wōden. From Proto-Germanic *Wōdanaz, derived from Proto-Germanic *wōdaz (“rage, manic inspiration, furor poeticus”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t- (“to be excited”). Compare Old Norse óðr (“rage”) and Dutch woede (“rage”) and woeden (“to rage”), Irish fáidh, Latin vātēs. Doublet of Woden and Wotan. Related to English wode.

interpretatio germanica
interpretatio germanica

(Norse mythology and paganism) A major Germanic god, often described as chief of the pantheon, in his Norse form a member of the Æsir, married to Frigg and associated with knowledge, poetry and war. Wednesday refers to him by way of interpretatio germanica.


Jove

From Middle English Joves, from Latin Iuppiter, Iovis, from Proto-Italic *djowe-, ablative case of *djous, from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws. Doublet of Dyeus and Zeus.

BEAT on, proud billows; Boreas blow; / Swell, curled waves, high as Jove’s roof; / Your incivility doth ſhow, / That innocence is tempeſt proof; / Though ſurly Nereus frown, my thoughts are calm; / Then ſtrike, Affliction, for thy wounds are balm. [Attributed to Roger L'Estrange (1616–1704).]

1781, [Mostyn John Armstrong], History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk. Volume IX. Containing the Hundreds of Smithdon, Taverham, Tunstead, Walsham, and Wayland, volume IX, Norwich: Printed by J. Crouse, for M. Booth, bookseller, →OCLC, page 51:

(Roman mythology) Jupiter, god of the sky.


Tartarus

From Latin Tartarus, from Ancient Greek Τάρταρος (Tártaros).

[…] them with Fire and hoſtile Arms / Fearleſs aſſault, and to the brow of Heav'n / Purſuing, drive them out from God and bliſs, / Into thir place of puniſhment, the Gulf / Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide / His fiery Chaos to receave thir fall.

1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 50–55:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A dark and gloomy part of the realm of Hades, reserved for the damned and the wicked, such as the Titans; an equivalent of hell in Greek and Roman mythology.


pantheon

(mythology) All the gods of a particular people or religion, particularly the ancient Greek gods residing on Olympus, considered as a group.


Ares

From Latin Arēs, from Ancient Greek Ἄρης (Árēs).

(Greek mythology) The Greek god of war, considered equivalent to the Roman Mars and usually described as a son of Zeus and Hera, companion of Eris and Enyo, and by Aphrodite father of Deimos and Phobos.


Arvak

(Norse mythology) One of the two horses drawing the chariot bearing the sun.

Arvak

one of the two horses drawing the chariot bearing the sun


Baal

en-proper noun

Baal (countable and uncountable, plural Baals or Baalim)

From Late Latin Baal (as in the Vulgate) and Ancient Greek Βάαλ (Báal); from Hebrew בַּעַל (bá`al, “lord, husband, owner”), Phoenician 𐤁𐤏𐤋 (bʿl, “lord, master, owner”) and Ugaritic 𐎁𐎓𐎍 (baʿlu, “lord, owner”), all from Proto-Semitic *baʿl- (“owner, lord, husband”).

der

(mythology, biblical) A storm and fertility god of the Phoenician and Canaanite pantheons, reckoned as chief of the gods by the 1st millennium BC.

(mythology, biblical, sometimes lowercase) Various other Baalim, understood as distinct patron gods or as local patron aspects the great god Baal.


Jason

From the Ancient Greek Ἰάσων (Iásōn), from ἰάομαι (iáomai, “I heal”). The Jason mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 17:5-9, Romans 16:21) is probably a Greek rendering of Joshua.

I know he will be glad of our success: / We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece.

(Greek mythology) The leader of the Argonauts, who retrieved the Golden Fleece from king Aeetes of Colchis, for his uncle Pelias.


daemon

A borrowing of Latin daemōn (“tutelary deity”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, tutelary deity”).

2018, Carolyn Graves-Brown, Daemons and Spirits in Ancient Egypt, University of Wales Press, page 46,
On some apotropaic wands the hippopotamus daemon bites or devours a person.⁸⁸ On a well-known New Kingdom papyrus, Taweret, who is named, is listed amongst evil daemons.


Sedna

Borrowed from Inuktitut Sitna.
The dwarf planet is named after the goddess.

Sedna began to enjoy keeping all the sea creatures away from the humans by tucking them into her now miles-long hair.

2018, Tanya Tagaq, Split Tooth, And Other Stories (2023), page 87:

(mythology, Inuit mythology) The Inuit goddess of the sea and marine animals.


Hades

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Hades.wav

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ᾍδης (Hā́idēs).

lbor

(Greek mythology) The god of the underworld and ruler of the dead, son of Cronus and Rhea, brother of Zeus and Poseidon.

(Greek mythology) The underworld, the domain of Hades, by transference from its god.


Asclepius

Borrowed from Latin Asclēpius, from Ancient Greek Ἀσκληπιός (Asklēpiós).

We found religious medicine in the Homeric poems, and there was no century without healing cults. The cult of Asclepius was by no means the only one, but, for reasons that will be discussed later, it dominated the scene and set a pattern for the cults of other healing deities.

1961, Henry E. Sigerist, “A History of Medicine, Volume II: Early Greek, Hindu, and Persian Medicine”, in Paperback, Oxford University Press, published 1987, page 44:

The temple of Asclepius is located just inside the north wall (Fig. 5) and is referred to by Pausanias (p. 34), who notes that the site was a place of refreshment in summer.

2002, Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, St. Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology, Liturgical Press, page 186:

The story of Tiber Island is similar: in 293 BC, the inhabitants of Rome started to fall sick and die from an unknown disease, and the city fathers sent an expedition to Epidaurus in Greece to retrieve one of the snakes sacred to Asclepius (Greek Asklepiós, Aesculapius in Latin), god of medicine and healing, thus bringing the god to Rome. The story told by Livy was that as the ship carrying this snake came up the Tiber, the snake escaped and swam to the island. The Romans immediately concluded that Asclepius wished to dwell there (it would appear that clever Asclepius had immediately recognised an excellent place of quarantine), and built a temple to the god on the island.

2015, Paula Landart, Finding Ancient Rome: Walks in the City, E-Book, page 16:

(Greek mythology) A Greek mythological deity, the god of doctors, medicine and healing; a son of Apollo and the Thessalian princess Coronis, husband to the goddess Epione and father of the Asclepiades; identified with the Roman god Aesculapius.

阿斯克勒庇俄斯

Āsīkèlēibì'ésī


Oedipus

From the Latin Oedipus, from the Ancient Greek Οἰδίπους (Oidípous, “swollen foot”).

der

(Greek mythology) A son of Laius and Jocasta, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother.


Khronos

(Greek mythology) Alternative spelling of Cronus

(Greek mythology) Alternative spelling of Chronos


Cronus

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Κρόνος (Krónos), possibly from the Ancient Greek κραίνω (kraínō, “to rule or command”).

der

The deal is: You post a photo from 10 years ago and one from now. It’s like viewing a painting of Cronus eating his children, but online.

2019 January 16, Alexis C. Madrigal, “Go Ahead, Post the Stupid Photo of Yourself From 10 Years Ago”, in The Atlantic:

(Greek mythology) The youngest of the twelve Titans, son of Uranus and Gaia; father to the first generation of Olympian gods and goddesses.


Chronos

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Χρόνος (Khrónos), from Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos, “time”)

lbor

(Greek mythology) The personification of time.


Dionysus

Via Latin Dionȳsus, from Ancient Greek Διόνῡσος (Diónūsos).

All hail slain and risen God / All hail Dionysus / Come blessed Dionysus, various nam'd, bull-fac'd / Begot from the thunder, Bacchus fam'd

(Greek mythology) The god of wine, ivy and grapes, specifically its intoxication and social influence, but also the patron of agriculture and the theater. Also related to the mystery of religion, as in "spiritual intoxication".


Artemis

From Ancient Greek Ἄρτεμις (Ártemis). Further etymology is uncertain.

(Greek mythology) The Greek goddess of the hunt, wild animals, and wilderness; the daughter of Leto and Zeus; the sister of Apollo. (Compare Diana.)


Clio

(Greek mythology) The goddess of history and heroic poetry, and one of the Muses; the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne.


Athena

Borrowed from Latin Athena, from Ancient Greek Ἀθηνᾶ (Athēnâ).

(Greek mythology) The goddess of wisdom, especially strategic warfare, the arts, and especially crafts, in particular, weaving; daughter of Zeus and Metis. Her Roman counterpart is Minerva.


genius

en-noun

genius (countable and uncountable, plural geniuses or genii)

From Latin genius (“inborn nature; a tutelary deity of a person or place; wit, brilliance”), from gignō (“to beget, produce”), Old Latin genō, from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵenh₁-. Doublet of genio. See also genus.

bor

and the genius of the place: the growing enthusiasm for codified standards in the Army and Navy

1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “the unseen genius of the wood”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC:

We talk of genius still, but with thought how changed! The genius of Augustus was a tutelary demon, to be sworn by and to receive offerings on an altar as a deity.

1715, Edward Burnett Tylor, Primitive Culture:

An old sinner, in shape of a khansamah, is the genius of the place, and has rarely aught else to tempt the tired traveller with than a “sudden death”—a fowl caught running in the yard, and dished up forthwith; […]

1866, Frederick F. Wyman, From Calcutta to the Snowy Range, page 330:

(countable, Roman mythology, also figuratively) The tutelary deity or spirit of a place or person.


genie

From French génie (“genius, genie”), a phono-semantic matching of Arabic جِنِّيّ (jinniyy).

psm

genie in a bottle

(mythology) A fictional magical being that is typically bound to obey the commands of a mortal possessing its container.


Perseus

Latin from the Ancient Greek Περσεύς (Perseús).

(Greek mythology) The mythological Greek warrior who slew the Gorgon Medusa by decapitating her. He married Andromeda after rescuing her from Ceto and founded Mycenae. He was the son of Zeus and Danae.


Area 51

→ German: Area 51

desc

→ Mandarin: 51區／51区 (Wǔshíyī qū) (calque)

Unclear, but perhaps from a grid numbering system of the area by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). While Area 51 is not part of this system, it is adjacent to Area 15.

Nevada Test and Training Range
w:Nevada Test and Training Range

(science fiction or ufology, informal) A secret military facility, airport, and airbase in Nevada Test and Training Range, Nevada, United States.

Atomic Energy Commission
en:Area 51
en:Area 51 (disambiguation)


Cupid

From Latin Cupīdō, personification of cupīdō (“desire, desire of love”), from cupidus (“eager, greedy, passionate”), from cupere (“to desire”).

The myth of Cupid and Psyche was one of the most influential romances in European culture.

(Roman mythology) The god of love, son of Venus; sometimes depicted as a putto (a naked, winged boy with bow and arrow). The Roman counterpart of Eros.


Selene

From the Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē, proper noun), from σέλας (sélas, “light”).

der

Balancing Arria is the union of Selene and Endymion. In the center of the main panel Selene descends from her chariot, whose horses are held by a nymph, to join Endymion, who lies to the right.

1999, Mark P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, page 43:

In the other, more famous story, the moon goddess Selene fell in love with him^([Endymion]) while he was asleep.

2005, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology, volume 4, page 473:

This fragmentary front panel of a sarcophagus preserves two episodes from the story of Endymion and Selene. Selene, goddess of the moon, fell in love with Endymion, a beautiful young mortal.

2010, J. Paul Getty Trust, Kenneth Lapatin, Karol Wight, editors, The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Antiquities Collection, 2nd edition, page 169:

(Greek mythology) The goddess of the Moon.


Thalia

From Ancient Greek Θαλία (Thalía) or Θάλεια (Tháleia); from Ancient Greek θάλλω (thállō, “flourish, to be verdant”).

uder

(Greek mythology) The Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry.

(Greek mythology) One of the three Graces/Charites.


Iron Age

/ˈʌɪən eɪdʒ/

From iron + age, in the mythological sense a calque of Latin saecula ferrea, aetas ferrea; in the archaeological sense a calque of Danish jernalder.

He that shall examine this iron age wherein we live, where love is cold […] may well ask where is charity?

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 1, member 3:

(mythology) The most recent and debased of the four or five classical Ages of Man; hence, any period characterized by wicked behavior.


pixie

Uncertain; 17thC, originally in the folklore of southwest England; perhaps diminutive of Swedish pysk (“fairy”); perhaps Puck + -sy; see Wikipedia.

Then she saw pixies — dozens and dozens of pixies — dancing and singing.

2005, Dan Keding, “The Pixies’ Bed”, in Dan Keding, Amy Douglas, editors, English Folktales, page 98:

When she looked around, Mary saw four pixies flying toward her. She had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit. Then the pixies turned around and attacked again.

2005, Kathryn Reyes, Mystery Door Manor and the Dragon Realm, page 72:

The servant that had raised him, an elderly pixie called Rolog, had died. On his deathbed he had called the young Captain to his side. Seeing the pixie dying had had no effect on him.

2007, Jeremy Phillips, The Wizardon Star, page 165:

Tiffy froze as the two pixies looked directly into each other's eyes.
Then Tiffy raised her hand and said, “Hi, I'm Tiffy the Tooth Fairy.” Even though the other pixie lifted her hand too, she didn't answer.

2010, Sandra A. Filbin, The Enchanted World: A Tooth Fairy's Tale, page 49:

(mythology, fantasy literature, fairy tales) A playful sprite or elflike or fairy-like creature.


elementary

From Latin elementārius (“elementary”), from elementum (“one of the four elements of antiquity; fundamentals”) + -ārius (adjective-forming suffix). Cognate with French élémentaire.

The demon (or elementary) of the South-West wind was particularly dreaded, as being the gini of fever and madness.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 45:

[…] the spiritual man is either translated like Enoch and Elias to the higher state, or falls down lower than an elementary again […]

2003, H P Blavatsky, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky, volume 1:

But, in Africa these became definite in their Egyptian Types, by means of which we can follow their development from the elementaries of Chaos and Space into Celestial Intelligencers […]

2007, Gerald Massey, The Natural Genesis, page 332:

(mythology, mysticism) A supernatural being associated with the elements.


siren

From Middle English siren, from Old French sereine and Latin Sīrēn, Sīrēna, from Ancient Greek Σειρήν (Seirḗn). The mammalian sense was first attested in French in Dominique Bouhours, Les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène, in 1671. The aquatic salamander sense was originally introduced by Linnaeus in 1766, for a genus of his reptiles. Doublet of serin.

Now give ear to what I'm about to say to you , and a god himself will bring it before your mind . First , you will come to the Sirens . These beings enthrall all men who arrive before them . Whoever draws near without knowledge and ...

2008 October 7, Homer, The Odyssey, North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 278:

(Greek mythology) One of a group of nymphs who lured mariners to their death on the rocks.


Lethe

From Latin Lēthē, from Ancient Greek Λήθη (Lḗthē).

(Greek mythology) The personification of oblivion, daughter of Eris.

No wonder these mortal Folks have so many Complaints, […] if they were dead now, and to be settled here for ever, they'd be damn'd before they'd make such a Rout come over—“But care, I suppose, is thirsty; and till they have drench’d themselves with Lethe, there will be no quiet among ’em” however, I’ll e’en to work; and so, friend Æsop, and brother Mercury, good bye to ye.

1740, David Garrick, Lethe: or Aesop in the Shade, published 1782:

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, / Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains / One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

For two-and-twenty years he [Doctor Guillotin], unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine, see nothing but guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to outlive Cæsar’s.

1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IV, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (States-General):

A well-fed man is not driven to drink by the craving that torments the hungry; and the comfortable do not crave for the boon of forgetfulness. Gin is the only Lethe of the miserable.

1890, William Booth, chapter 6, in In Darkest England and the Way Out:

When we have done penance, and are purified, and have drunk of the fountain of Lethe and bathed in the fountain of Eunoe, the mistress of our soul raises us to the Paradise of Heaven.

1891, Oscar Wilde, “The Critic as Artist”, in Intentions:

oblivion n.: Lethe. In Greek mythology, Lethe (pronounced LEEthee) is one of the several rivers of Hades. Those who drink from it experience complete forgetfulness. Today it is used to refer to one in an oblivious or forgetful state.

2015, Peter E. Meltzer, The Thinker's Thesaurus, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN:

(Greek mythology) The river which flows through Hades from which the souls of the dead drank so that they would forget their time on Earth.


Metis

From Ancient Greek Μῆτις (Mêtis) from Ancient Greek μῆτις (mêtis, “wisdom”).

(Greek mythology) A Titan who was the personification of wisdom, the first spouse of Zeus, and the mother of Athena


Typhon

(Greek mythology) The most powerful and feared of all Greek monsters, having the head, arms, and torso of a man, and his bottom half consisting of countless dragons or serpents. Some stories also say that his hands ended in serpents and that he bears 100 heads. He is shrouded in giant wings, his eyes blaze a white fire, and his arms reach towards the stars.

Athanasius Kircher
Oedipus Aegyptiacus
Typhon


dybbuk

From Yiddish דיבוק (dibek), from Hebrew דבק (dovek, “cling”).

(mythology, Judaism) A malicious possessing spirit, believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person.


Eris

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἔρις (Éris), from ἔρις (éris, “strife”).
See also Eris (mythology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia and Eris (dwarf planet) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

pedia

According to Homer, the Trojan war is, above all, an affair of the gods. It is about Eris, a sister of the god of war Ares, and about Eros, not directly named by Homer, but who in the figure of Aphrodite, the god of love, plays a central role on the side of the Trojans. Eris is the one who divides gods, mortals, and things from each other; Eros is the one who brings them together.

1992, Samuel Ijsseling, “Eros and Eris: The Trojan War and Heidegger on the Essence of Truth”, in Paul van Tongeren, Paul Sars, Chris Bremmers, Koen Boey, editors, Eros and Eris: Contributions to a Hermeneutical Phenomenology Liber Amicorum for Adriaan Peperzak, Kluwer Academic, page 2:

1993, Herman Parret, The Aesthetics of Communication: Pragmatics and Beyond, Springer, Softcover reprint, page 18,
Eris, "the Strife with the violent heart", one reads in Hesiod's Theogony, is a child of the Night, and "Hateful Struggle gave birth to painful Distress and Distraction and Famine and tearful Sorrow; also Wars and Battles and Murders and Slaughters; also Feuds and Lying Words and Angry Words".

According to Newport, no specific bowling alley can claim to be the site of the birth of the Discordian movement. It evolved at several different bowling alleys. This revelation came as a devastating disappointment to your humble author, who—in the course of writing this book—had planned a grand religious pilgrimage to this envisioned holy site, where I would snap sacred photos of "The Brunswick Shrine," and perhaps even fall to my knees before this fabled Mecca of Discordianism, bowing to the Goddess Eris.

2003, Adam Gorightly, The Prankster and the Conspiracy: The Story of Kerry Thornley and How He Met Oswald and Inspired the Counterculture, Paraview Press, page 58:

And yet Erisianism should not be treated frivolously. Greg Hill told me his experiences with Eris had been quite profound. Although it started as an atheistic joke, his perceptions began to change.

2006, Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-worshippers, and Other Pagans in America, Penguin, page 351:

(Greek mythology) The goddess of discord and strife, whose apple of discord sparked events that eventually led to the Trojan War; equated by Homer with Enyo (goddess of violent war) and identified with the Roman goddess Discordia;

The goddess of discord and strife, whose apple of discord sparked events that eventually led to the Trojan War; equated by Homer with Enyo (goddess of violent war) and identified with the Roman goddess Discordia;
(religion, Discordianism) the same figure as principal deity of Discordianism, regarded as the goddess of disorder.


satyr

From French satyre, from Latin satyrus, from Ancient Greek σάτυρος (sáturos).

Rough Satyrs danced; and Fauns, with cloven heel, / From the glad sound would not be absent long.
male variation of nymphs

(Greek mythology) A sylvan deity or demigod, male companion of Pan or Dionysus, represented as part man and part goat, and characterized by riotous merriment and lasciviousness, sometimes pictured with a perpetual erection.


Irene

Borrowed from French Irène, from Ancient Greek Εἰρήνη (Eirḗnē, “peace”), name of a goddess of peace, of early Christian saints, and of an 8th-century Byzantine empress. Doublet of Eirini.

(Greek mythology) Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, one of the Horae/Horæ; equivalent to the Roman goddess Pax.


ambrosia

en-noun

ambrosia (countable and uncountable, plural ambrosias)

From Latin ambrosia (“food of the gods”), from Ancient Greek ἀμβροσία (ambrosía, “immortality”), from ἄμβροτος (ámbrotos, “immortal”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + βροτός (brotós, “mortal”).

af

He had a most intense admiration of female loveliness, and looked upon woman as a kind of super-angelic being, whose food should be the ambrosiæ and nectar of the gods, and whose garments the spotless white of vestal purity.

1845 November, Caroline Lee Hentz, “The Mysterious Reticule”, in Sarah J[osepha] Hale, Morton M’Michael, Louis A[ntoine] Godey, editors, Godey’s Magazine and Lady’s Book, volume XXXI, number 16, Philadelphia, Pa.: Louis A. Godey, […], page 202, column 1:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The food of the gods, thought to confer immortality.

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The anointing-oil of the gods.


epithet

From Middle French épithète, from Latin epithetum, epitheton, from Ancient Greek ἐπίθετον (epítheton, “epithet, adjective”), the neuter of ἐπίθετος (epíthetos, “additional”), from ἐπιτίθημι (epitíthēmi, “to add on”), from ἐπι- (epi-, “in addition”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”) (suf. possibly related to title in the sense of "ascribed appellation") (from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, to do”)).

der

(mythology) A term used as a qualifier of the name of a deity in order to designate said deity in a particular aspect or role.


insectoid

Two hundred Earth years earlier, a race of Insectoids discovered them as the Squishys were sending their first probes to other planets in their own star system.

2017, A.K. Brown, Humans on the Menu (Champagne Universe Series: Book 2), page 24:

(science fiction, ufology) An insect-like creature.


Aífe

Borrowed from Old Irish Aífe; compare Modern Irish Aoife.

(Irish mythology) Either of two figures of Irish mythology:

A female warrior from Alba (Scotland), the daughter of Airdgeimm and sister of Scáthach, who became Cú Chulainn's lover; featured in the Ulster Cycle.

One of the wives of Lir, who turned her stepchildren into swans; featured in Oidheadh chloinne Lir ("Fate of the Children of Lir").


doghead

(mythology) A mythical creature with a human body and a dog's head.


Seth

From Ancient Greek Σήθ (Sḗth), from Egyptian s-t:X (stẖ).

(Egyptian mythology) An ancient Egyptian god, variously described as the god of chaos, the god of thunder and storms, or the god of destruction.


Bacchus

From the Latin Bacchus, from the Ancient Greek Βάκχος (Bákkhos).

(Roman mythology) Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and vivid social gatherings.


Buarainech

(Irish mythology) The father of Balor, the King of the Fomorians.


Cethlenn

(Irish mythology) The wife of Balor of the Fomorians, and, by Balor, the mother of Ethniu; also a prophetess.


Balor

(Irish mythology) A king of the Fomorians, supposed to have lived on Tory Island. Son of Buarainech. Husband of Cethlenn. Father of Ethniu.


Oceanid

(Greek mythology) Any of the sea nymphs, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys.


Ethniu

(Irish mythology) The daughter of the Fomorian king Balor, wife of Cian and the mother of Lugh and Delbáeth, and the grandmother of Cúchulainn and Fionn mac Cumhaill.


Manannán mac Lir

Borrowed from Irish Manannán mac Lir, from Old Irish Manandán mac Lir.


Prometheus

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From Ancient Greek Προμηθεύς (Promētheús), from πρό (pró, “before”) + μανθάνω (manthánō, “to think”).

(Greek mythology) The Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from Zeus in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. The god of fire and craft.


Athirne

(Irish mythology) Athairne the Importunate, a poet and a satirist of the court of Conchobar mac Nessa in the Ulster Cycle and foster-father of Amairgin mac Echit.


Achall

(Irish mythology) In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, the daughter of Cairbre Nia Fer; committed suicide after her brother Erc was killed by Conall Cernach.


Findchoem

Conall the Victorious
Conall the Victorious

(Irish mythology) Princess of Ulster. Wife of Amairgin mac Echit and sister of Conchobar mac Nessa. Mother of Conall the Victorious.


Briccriu

(Irish mythology) In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology: a warrior, poet, and troublemaker who once held a lavish feast for Conchobar mac Nessa and the heroes of Ulster in his house at Dún Rudraige.


Díthorba

(Irish mythology) One of the three High Kings of Ireland, who ruled in rotation with Áed Ruad and Cimbáeth, each ruling seven years in turn and for three seven-year periods.


Finnbhennach

(Irish mythology) In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, an extremely fertile stud bull owned by king Ailill mac Máta. He was originally one of Bodb Dearg's pig-keepers, who fell out with one of his colleagues.


Áed Ruad

(Irish mythology) The High King of Ireland who ruled in rotation with his cousins Díthorba and Cimbáeth, each ruling for seven years in turn.


Cimbáeth

(Irish mythology) One of the three High Kings of Ireland, who ruled in rotation with Áed Ruad and Díthorba, each ruling seven years in turn and ruling for three seven year period. He died of plague at Emain Macha.


Erc

From Old Irish Erc (modern Irish Earc), a word for which the electronic Dictionary of the Irish language gives several meanings, but the most likely meaning for the name is "spotted, speckled, motley," from Proto-Celtic *ɸerkos (“perch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *perḱ- (“colored”).

(Irish mythology) A member of the conspiracy that killed Cúchulainn, but was killed by his second cousin Conall the Victorious. Son of Cairbre Nia Fer and brother of Achall.


Thetis

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(Greek mythology) One of the Nereids; the mother of Achilles


Terpsichore

From Ancient Greek Τερψιχόρη (Terpsikhórē, from τέρψις (térpsis, “enjoyment, delight”) + χορός (khorós, “chorus”)).

uder

(Greek mythology) The goddess of dance and the dramatic chorus, and one of the Muses; the daughters of Zeus & Mnemosyne.


Bronze Age

(mythology) One of the Classical Ages of Man, associated with warfare.


Poseidon

(Greek mythology) The god of the sea and other waters, earthquakes and horses; corresponds to the Roman god Neptune.


Elysian Fields

Calque of Latin Campī Ēlysiī, from Ancient Greek Ἠλῠ́σῐον Πεδῐ́ον (Ēlúsion Pedíon). By surface analysis, Elysian + fields.

der

Ἠλῠ́σῐον Πεδῐ́ον

Indeed, the Elysian Fields themselves were a part of Hades, though they have since been removed to Paris.

1911, Ambrose Bierce, “Hades”, in The Devil’s Dictionary, New York, N.Y., Washington, D.C.: The Neale Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 127:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Elysium; home of the blessed, after death.

Ելիսեյան մարգագետիններ

home of the blessed after death in Greek and Roman mythology — see also Elysium


Elysium

From Latin, from Ancient Greek Ἠλῠ́σῐον (Πεδῐ́ον) (Ēlúsion (Pedíon)).

Ἠλῠ́σῐον (Πεδῐ́ον)

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The home of the blessed after death.

至福樂土

home of the blessed after death in Greek and Roman mythology — see also Elysian Fields


Celtchar

(Irish mythology) A leading figure in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology: an Ulster warrior described as tall, grey, and ugly, and who wields a spear called Luír Cheltchair, and who killed Blaí Briugu after the latter slept with his wife Brig Bretach.


Blaí Briugu

(Irish mythology) In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, a wealthy Ulster warrior who kept a hostel. He was killed by Celtchar for sleeping with the latter's wife Brig Bretach.


Brig Bretach

(Irish mythology) In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, the wife of Celtchar. Her husband Celtchar killed Blaí Briugu for sleeping with her as Blaí Briugu was required to do so by the latter's geas.


Ferdiad

(Irish mythology) In Irish mythology, Cúchulainn's best friend and foster-brother.


Luír Cheltchair

(Irish mythology) The spear wielded by Celtchar. Its lust for blood is so great that it has to be dipped in a cauldron of poison to control it.


visitor

Partly from Middle English visiter, visitere, equivalent to visit + -er; and partly from Middle English visitour, from Anglo-Norman visitour, from Old French visetëor. By surface analysis, visit + -or.

5: Of course there is always the remote (I hope) possibility that instant panic will prompt us to send a hailstorm of nuclear warheads out upon the visitor.

1979, Chris Boyce, Extraterrestrial Encounter: a Personal Perspective, Chartwell Books, page 184:

When we ask what evidence does in fact exist of extraterrestrial sojourns on our planet, we can start with what would surely be the best evidence of all: an actual visitor, or group of visitors, visible to crowds of people and ready for photo opportunities, television interviews, handshakes, polite conversation, and dancing.

2001, Donald Goldsmith, Tobias C. Owen, The Search for Life in the Universe, University Science Books, page 511:

The visitor in Man Facing South-east claims pure altruism; Rantes (Hugo Soto) wants to alleviate the suffering of the poor and helpless.

2004, Carol Schwartz Ellis, Sean Redmond (editor), With Eyes Uplifted: Space Aliens as Sky Gods in Liquid Metal: The Science Fiction Film Reader, Wallflower Press, page 145

The tower radioed the flight leader, Captain Thomas F. Mantell, Jr., and requested that he engage and attempt to identify the strange visitor.

2007, Frank G. Wilkinson, The Golden Age of Flying Saucers: Classic UFO Sightings, Saucer Crashes and Extraterrestrial Contact Encounters, Lulu.com, page 37:

(ufology, specifically) An extraterrestrial being on Earth.


Loki

Borrowed from Old Norse Loki, where further etymology is shown.

(Norse mythology) The god of mischief and trickery; growing progressively evil, he kills Balder, and is bound until Ragnarok, the end of the world.


wyrm

Learned borrowing from Old English wyrm. Doublet of worm, which was inherited.

(mythology, fantasy) A huge limbless and wingless dragon or dragonlike creature.


Janus

From Latin Iānus (“the Roman god Janus”).

In the ages of victory, as often as the senate decreed some distant conquest, the consul denounced hostilities, by unbarring, in solemn pomp, the gates of the temple of Janus. Domestic war now rendered the admonition superfluous, and the ceremony was superseded by the establishment of a new religion. But the brazen temple of Janus was left standing in the forum; of a size sufficient only to contain the statue of the god, five cubits in height, of a human form, but with two faces, directed to the east and west.

1789, Edward Gibbon, chapter XLI, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume V, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Strahan, and T[homas] Cadell, in the Strand, OCLC 30106274; republished Philadelphia, Pa.: Published by William Y. Birch & Abraham Small, No. 37, South Second Street; printed by Robert Carr, 1805, OCLC 15453273, page 166

[K]nowing that the minds of the people, rendered ferocious by a military life, would never accommodate themſelves to the practice of theſe [principles of justice, laws, and morals], during the continuance of war, he [Numa Pompilius] reſolved, by a diſuſe of arms, to mollify the fierceneſs of their temper: with this view, he built a temple to Janus, near the foot of the hill Argiletum, which was to notify a ſtate either of war or of peace: when open, it denoted that the ſtate was engaged in war; when ſhut, that there was peace with all the ſurrounding nations.

1797, Titus Livius [Livy], translated by George Baker, The History of Rome, [...] In Six Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Strahan, and T[homas] Cadell Jun. and W. Davies (successor to Mr. Cadell) in the Strand, →OCLC, book I, page 35:

"I'll tell you what we can do," cried her persevering patroness; "we can go as masks, and Lady Juliana shall know nothing about it. That will save the scandal of an open revolt or a tiresome dispute. Half the company will be masked; so, if you keep your own secret, nobody will find it out. Come, what characters shall we choose?" / "That of Janus, I think, would be the most suitable for me," said Mary.

1810, anonymous [Susan Edmonstone Ferrier], “chapter XVI”, in Marriage, a Novel. In Three Volumes, volume II, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Prince's-Street: and John Murray, Albemarle-Street, London, published 1818, →OCLC, page 218:

We find ourselves once again sitting in Committee of the Whole House to vote a war subsidy. The present occupants of the Treasury Bench are determined that so long as they retain their places the Temple of Janus shall not be closed.

1879 February 27, A[lexander] M[artin] Sullivan, “On the Zulu War” (speech before the House of Commons of the United Kingdom); quoted in William Jennings Bryan, editor, Irish Orations (The World's Famous Orations), volume VI, New York, N.Y.: Funk & Wagnalls, 1906, OCLC 23127203, and republished on Bartleby.com, 2002, archived from the original on 4 October 2015

Janus, with his two heads, his mystery, his depiction as both laughing and serious, and the obvious parallel this forms with the masks of attic tragedy and comedy would make him a double of the two-headed man, the conjurer, and an associate of the trickster in folk comedy as well.

2008, John Lowe, “Laughin’ up a World: Their Eyes Were Watching God and the (Wo)Man of Words”, in Harold Bloom, editor, Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations), new edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloom's Literary Criticism, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 75:

Good reviews look both backward and forward; an argument could even be made that one must look backward in order to discern the way forward, that backward and forward are two sides of the same research coin. Nowhere is such a Janus-like perspective more apparent than in the current set of reviews.

2011, Robert M. Hodapp, “Preface”, in Robert M. Hodapp, editor, International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities, volume 41, San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page xi:

(Roman mythology) The god of doorways, gates and transitions, and of beginnings and endings, having two faces looking in opposite directions.

Janus

Roman god of doorways, gates and transitions


underworld

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(religion or mythology) The world of the dead, located underneath the world of the living; the afterlife.

тот свет m (tot svet, literally “that world”)


alien abduction

en-noun

alien abduction (plural alien abductions)

(ufology) The abduction of a person by extraterrestrials.


Scáthach

(Irish mythology) The female warrior who trains Cúchulainn in the arts of war in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.


Dian Cecht

(Irish mythology) A god of healing. The healer for the Tuatha Dé Danann and the father of Cian.


Eochaid Sálbuide

(Irish mythology) The king of Ulster prior to the events of the Ulster Cycle in Irish mythology. Father of Ness. He was deposed as High King by Eochaid Feidlech.


Tuatha Dé Danann

From Irish Tuatha Dé Danann (literally “peoples of the goddess Danu”).

bor

(Irish mythology) The fifth group of inhabitants of Ireland according to the Lebor Gabála Érenn tradition, thought to represent the gods of the Goidelic Irish. Their Christian redactors have reduced them to historical kings and heroes.


Nemean Lion

(Greek mythology) A mythical lion of ancient Nemea that was invulnerable to attack by weapons and was slain by Hercules as one of his labours.


Deichtine

(Irish mythology) Female name. In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, the mother of Cúchulainn and sister of Conchobar mac Nessa.


Ness

en-proper noun

Ness (countable and uncountable, plural Nesses)

Named after the River Ness, of Celtic/Pictish origin, from a Proto-Celtic word *Nesta describing great currents, according to MacBain, from the same Proto-Indo-European root that gave the river Νέστος (Néstos), possibly *ned- (“water”).

(Irish mythology) An Ulster princess and the mother of Conchobar mac Nessa and Findchoem in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Daughter of Eochaid Sálbuide. Also the mother of Cormac Cond Longas by incest with Conchobar mac Nessa.


Deirdre

From Irish Deirdre, from Old Irish Derdriu.

(Irish mythology) The foremost tragic heroine in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.


Dii Majores

From Latin di maiores (literally “greater gods”).

der

(Roman mythology) The twelve great gods of Roman mythology, namely Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Vulcan, and Apollo.

Di Majores

di and dei are both acceptable forms in Latin for 'gods'. Also Dii majores

and with maiores following current Latin spelling


Apeliotes

From Ancient Greek Ἀπηλιώτης (Apēliṓtēs).

(Greek mythology), the Greek god of the south east winds. Apeliotes is often depicted wearing gumboots and carrying fruit.


Archaean

From Ancient Greek ἀρχαῖα (arkhaîa, “ancient”), neuter plural of ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “ancient”).

(mythology) Of or relating to Arche, the Muse of beginnings in Greek mythology.


alf

From Danish and Swedish alf, from Old Norse alfr; see also Dutch alf. Doublet of elf and oaf.

As the Scandinavians were at that time still worshippers of Thor and Odin, the belief in Alfs and Dwarfs accompanied them to their new abodes, and there, as elsewhere, survived the introduction of Christianity.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 248:

[T]he charm suggests rather that the Ases had sunk to a level where they could be counted together with witches and lesser wights, than that the alfs were seen as godly beings at the time the charm was composed.

2023, Kveldulf Gundarsson, Elves, Wights & Trolls, The Three Little Sisters, page 83:

(Norse mythology) A supernatural being similar to an elf; one of the Dǫkkálfar or Ljósalfar.


Nona

From the Latin meaning "the ninth", because she was prayed to in the ninth month of pregnancy.

(Roman mythology) The youngest of the three Fates, or Parcae, daughter of Jupiter and Justitia; the spinner of the thread of life. She is the Roman equivalent of Clotho.


Erinys

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἐρῑνῡ́ς (Erīnū́s). Possibly "the angry spirits" from ὀρῑ́νω (orī́nō, “to raise, stir, excite [towards anger]”).

(Greek mythology) One of the female personifications of vengeance, particularly wrong or immoral deeds on behalf of the victims.


Moirae

From Ancient Greek Μοῖραι (Moîrai, “Moirae”), from μοῖρᾰ (moîra, “lot, destiny”).

(Greek mythology) The Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, the goddesses, who controlled every person's destiny by weaving the thread of life.


Morta

(Roman mythology) One of the three Fates, or Parcae, daughter of Jupiter and Justitia; the cutter of the thread of life. She is the Roman equivalent of Atropos.


Atropos

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From Ancient Greek Ἄτροπος (Átropos), literally meaning inflexible or not turning, from the Greek a-, (not) + tropos, (to turn).

(Greek mythology) One of the three Fates, or Moirae; a daughter of Zeus and Themis; the cutter of the thread of life, depicted as an old woman. Her Roman counterpart is Morta.


Decima

(Roman mythology) One of the three Fates, or Parcae, daughter of Jupiter and Justitia; the measurer of the thread of life. She is the Roman equivalent of Lachesis.


Menoetius

From Ancient Greek Μενοίτιος (Menoítios). The name "Menoetius" literally means "defying fate" or "ruined strength".

(Greek mythology) A Titan, son of Iapetus and Clymene, he had three brothers: Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus. He joined Cronus and the Titans in their unsuccessful war against the Olympian gods. Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt and sent him down to Tartarus.

(Greek mythology) One of Hades' shepherds on Erythea. He told Geryon when Heracles stole Geryon's herd.

(Greek mythology) Father of Patroclus and son of Actor. (Iliad, XI, 765)


Hephaestus

From Ancient Greek Ἥφαιστος (Hḗphaistos), a pre-Greek word of unknown origin.

(Greek mythology) The god of fire, smithwork, metallurgy, volcanoes, and artisans, who served as blacksmith of the gods. His Roman counterpart is Vulcan.


Oceanus

From Ancient Greek Ὠκεανός (Ōkeanós). Doublet of ocean.

(Greek mythology) Personification of vast waters or the world ocean. He was the first-born of the Titans, son of Uranus and Gaia, the god Ωκεανός Ποταμός (Ōkeanós Potamós, “River Ocean”) that encircled the earth. With his sister-wife, Tethys, he fathered all rivers and the Oceanids.


Helios

From Ancient Greek Ἥλιος (Hḗlios), from ἥλιος (hḗlios, “sun”).

(Greek mythology) The god of the Sun; son of Hyperion and Theia, brother of Selene and Eos, father of Phaeton amongst others. His Roman counterpart is Sol.


Nyx

(Greek mythology) The primordial goddess of night.


Erato

(Greek mythology) The goddess of lyric poetry, particularly erotic poetry, eroticism, and mimic imitation, and one of the Muses; the daughters of Zeus & Mnemosyne. Usually depicted with a crown/wreath of myrtle and roses, holding a lyre and a golden arrow and doves. Often accompanies Eros/Cupid.


Polyhymnia

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Πολυύμνια (Poluúmnia), Πολύμνια (Polúmnia)

lbor

(Greek mythology) The Muse of sacred music.


Lachesis

And if it were asked how it is known that the pocket in which Erskine kept this key was sewn on to the front of his underhose, the answer to that would be this, that one day when Erskine was doing his number one against a bush, Watt, who as Lachesis would have it was doing his number one too against the same bush, but on the other side, caught a glimpse, through the bush, for it was a deciduous bush, of the key, gleaming among the flap buttons.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

(Greek mythology) One of the three Fates (Moirae), daughter of Zeus and Themis; the measurer of each thread of life. Her Roman equivalent is Decima.


Clotho

From Latin Clōthō, from Ancient Greek Κλωθώ (Klōthṓ), from κλώθω (klṓthō, literally “to spin”).

(Greek mythology) The youngest of the three Fates, a daughter of Zeus and Themis; the spinner of the thread of life. Her Roman equivalent is Nona.


Heracles

From Ancient Greek Ἡρακλῆς (Hēraklês), from Ἥρα (Hḗra, “Hera”) + κλέος (kléos, “glory”).

com

(Greek mythology): Son of Zeus and Alcmene, a celebrated hero who possessed exceptional strength. Most famous for his 12 labours performed to redeem himself after killing his family.


Melpomene

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Μελπομένη (Melpoménē), from μέλπω (mélpō, “to sing”).


Tethys

(Greek mythology) Personification of fertile waters, she was a Titan daughter of Uranus and Gaia, and with her brother Oceanus gave birth to all rivers and the Oceanids.


Euterpe

(Greek mythology) The Muse of music and lyric poetry.


Urania

(Greek mythology) The Muse of astronomy.

(Greek mythology) One of the epithets of Aphrodite.


Moira

(Greek mythology) The personification of fate, especially as Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.


Hestia

From Ancient Greek Ἑστία (Hestía), from ἑστία (hestía, “hearth”).

(Greek mythology) The virgin goddess of the hearth, and the household, and therefore of domestic life.


Epimetheus

From Ancient Greek Ἐπιμηθεύς (Epimētheús, “afterthought, hindsight”).

uder

(Greek mythology) Son of Iapetus and Clymene, brother to Atlas, Menoetius and Prometheus, of whom he ignored warnings to beware of any gifts from Zeus. He accepted Pandora as his wife, thereby bringing sorrow to the world; father to Pyrrha.


Gaia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Γαῖᾰ (Gaîa, “Gaea, the Earth personified as a goddess”), from γαῖᾰ (gaîa, “the Earth”), probably related to γῆ (gê, “earth, land; country”).
Sense 1 was coined by the British scientist, environmentalist, and futurist James Lovelock (born 1919) in his book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979), at the suggestion of the British novelist, playwright, and poet William Golding (1911–1993): see the quotation.

bor

While investigating the Greek mythology, we have found reason to suppose that Juno, Ceres, and Gaia are but three different forms of the same original tradition of a divine feminine: of whom Ceres is the Pelasgian copy, Juno the vivid and powerful Hellenic development, and Gaia the original skeleton, retaining nothing of the old character, but having acquired the function of gaol-keeper for perjurors when sent to the other world.

1858, W[illiam] E[wart] Gladstone, “Ilios. The Trojans Compared and Contrasted with the Greeks.”, in Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. … In Three Volumes, volume III, Oxford: At the University Press, →OCLC, page 153:

(Greek mythology) A Greek goddess, the personification of the earth, and one of the primordial deities from whom all the others descend.


Vesta

From Middle English Vesta, from Latin Vesta, related to Ancient Greek ἑστία (hestía, “to dwell”) and Ἑστία (Hestía, “Hestia”), all from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-; see also Old High German and Old English wesan (“to be”), Gothic wisan, Sanskrit वसति (vasati, “abide dwell”).
Vesta itself came to mean chaste, pure, or virgin, based from this goddess.

cog

(Roman mythology) The virgin goddess of the hearth, fire, and the household, and therefore a deity of domestic life. The Roman counterpart of Hestia.


Odysseus

(Greek mythology) The son of Laertes and Anticlea and father of Telemachus. A Greek leader during the Trojan War, he was responsible for the Trojan horse. He was also king of Ithaca, hero of the Iliad and protagonist of the Odyssey.

Odusseus

son of Laertes; Greek leader during the Trojan War


Trojan War

For the greater part of three thousand years since the date of the Trojan War, the imagination of poets and dramatists has been busy with its story.

1952, Olivia E. Coolidge, The Trojan War, Houghton Mifflin, published 1980, page ix:

The poems of the Epic Cycle are now lost. But what we know about them from ancient evidence is extremely important for our understanding about myth of the Trojan War. The poems of the Epic Cycle share the same mythological tradition with the famous Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and in fact the Epic Cycle is even more representative of the Trojan War tradition than the Homeric poems.

2001, Jonathan S. Burgess, “The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle”, in Paperback, Johns Hopkins University Press, published 2004, page 1:

The Greeks and Romans believed that the Trojan War was both a real event and a pivotal point in world history; Herodotus and Thucydides discussed the Trojan War briefly in the opening pages of their respective books, written in the fifth century BCE.

2013, Eric H. Cline, The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, page 1:

(Greek mythology) A mythological decade-long war and siege, ending in the destruction of Troy, which, as described in Homer's Iliad, was waged by a coalition of Achaeans (Greeks) led by King Agamemnon against the Trojans to avenge the abduction of Helen, wife of the Spartan King Menelaus, by Paris, son of the Trojan King Priam.


Ganymede

From French Ganymède, from Latin Ganymēdēs, from Ancient Greek Γανυμήδης (Ganumḗdēs, “meant to please”), from γάνυμαι (gánumai, “I rejoice, I am glad”) + μήδεα (mḗdea, “thought, intention”). Doublet of catamite.

bor

(Greek mythology) A Trojan boy who was abducted (either by Zeus or Eos), and ultimately became immortal in order to be Zeus' cupbearer.


Minerva

From Latin Minerva, from Etruscan, originally from Proto-Indo-European *men-es-weh₂, extended from the stem *men-s- (“mind”) (Sanskrit मनस् (manas, “mind”), compare मनस्विन् (manas-vin-, “full of mind or sense”)), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).

مِينِيرْفَا

In many works of this ſpecies, the hero is allowed to be mortal, and to become wiſe and virtuous as well as happy, by a train of events and circumſtances. The heroines, on the contrary, are to be born immaculate; and to act like goddeſſes of wiſdom, juſt come forth highly finiſhed Minervas from the head of Jove.

1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “Author’s Preface”, in W[illiam] Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and G[eorge,] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, […], →OCLC:

(Roman mythology) The goddess of wisdom, especially strategic warfare, and the arts, especially crafts and in particular weaving. She is the Roman counterpart of Athena.


Orpheus

From Ancient Greek Ὀρφεύς (Orpheús), built from an uncertain root with the -εύς (-eús) suffix. Perhaps root-cognate to Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “orphan”).

cog

(Greek mythology) A Thracian musician and poet, who failed to retrieve his wife Eurydice from Hades.


Hercules

head

Hercules (plural Herculeses or Hercules or (obsolete) Herculesses or (obsolete) Hercules's)

Herculeses (plural)
Hercules (plural)
Herculesses (obsolete plural)
Hercules's (obsolete plural)

From Latin Herculēs, from Etruscan 𐌇𐌄𐌓𐌂𐌋𐌄 (hercle), from Ancient Greek Ἡρακλῆς (Hēraklês), apparently cognate of Ἥρα (Hḗra, “Hera”) and, according to Haudry, from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, season”) + κλέος (kléos, “glory”).

der

THere were many Hercules'''’s, but (as Tully ſays, de Nat. Deor. lib. 3.) the famous Actions of them all are aſcrib’d to him who was the Son of Jupiter, by Alcmena, the Wife of Amphitryo King of Thebes.

1698, The Pantheon, Representing the Fabulous Histories of the Heathen Gods and Most Illustrious Heroes, in a Short, Plain and Familiar Method by Way of Dialogue, 2nd edition, London: […] Charles Harper, […], page 332:

THere were many Hercules'''’s amongſt the Antients; Varro enumerates Forty four. The moſt famous were, Hercules Marguſanus, Hercules Ogmius, who was the Symbol of Eloquence amongſt the Gauls; Hercules Pollens, Hercules Thebanus, firſt called Alcides, Hercules' Tyrius, or Egyptian; and there were two of them; the Elder called Melicarthus, or Eſau, the Founder of the City of Tyre; and the Younger, who Subdu’d Geryon, and was Worſhipped in Sidon in Spain.

1705, The Antient Religion of the Gentiles, and Causes of Their Errors Consider’d: […], London: […] John Nutt, […], page 166:

Mr. Sympſon would read Theban, the Story of Omphale being, as he thinks, only applicable to him: But as there were many Hercules'''’s, and among the reſt a Libyan, the Son of Jupiter Ammon; if it is inaccurate, it ſeems the Inaccuracy of a Scholar, and not an Error of the Preſs.

1750, The Works of Mr. Francis Beaumont, and Mr. John Fletcher, volume the third, London: […] J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper […], page 70:

Supporters.] Two Herculeſſes, with clubs over their ſhoulders, proper, crined and habited about the middle, or.

1769, The New Peerage; or Present State of the Nobility of England: […], volume III, London: […] R. Davis, […]; L. Davis, […]; and W. Owen, […], page 227:

There were so many Hercules in the Grecian mythology and history, that it was necessary to specify when the principal Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, was meant.

1795, Paradise Regained, a Poem, in Four Books, by John Milton. A New Edition, with Notes of Various Authors, by Charles Dunster, M.A., London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […], page 258:

Thus he enumerates many Hercules’s, and many Mercury’s; but one part of the history of each is so much the same, that I know not how he could avoid perceiving that they were only two names of one person.

1838, L[eveson] Vernon Harcourt, The Doctrine of the Deluge; Vindicating the Scriptural Account from the Doubts Which Have Recently Been Cast upon It by Geological Speculations, volume I, London: […] Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], page 453:

[…]—Hercules—Was Nimrod, the grand-son of Noah, and the origin of all the fabled Herculesses of all the early nations—[…]

1843, [Josiah Priest], Slavery, as It Relates to the Negro, or African Race, Examined in the Light of Circumstances, History and the Holy Scriptures; […], Albany, N.Y.: C. Van Benthuysen and Co., page VII:

Our great cities have become so many Augean stables, for the removal of whose filth as many Hercules are required.

1848, Richard B[oxall] Grantham, A Treatise on Public Slaughter-Houses, Considered in Connection with the Sanitary Question. […], London: […] J[ohn] Weale, […]; and […] Henry Renshaw, […], page 25:

“[…] Diogenes turned Hercules into ridicule; and the Roman Cynic Varro introduces three hundred Joves without heads.” From the stage abuser the sarcastic African father selects, partly from his own former observation, those of Diana being flogged, the reading of Jupiter’s will after his decease, and the three half-starved Herculesses!

1884, Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, […], page 112:

[…] and now was Hercules famous at Tyre: not he that we spoke of before: (for the more secret histories say there were many Hercules, and many father Libers) and this Hercules they make famous for twelve sundry rare exploits […]

The two Hercules are positioned on the same convex, bulging frame of the lower stern gallery as David, but furthest to the port (No. 397) and to the starboard (No. 1279) respectively of the centre line.

1986, Hans Soop, The Power and the Glory: The Sculptures of the Warship Wasa, Almqvist & Wiksell, →ISBN, page 43:

By this time, however, Maciste had lost his individuality and had become indistinguishable from the many Herculeses, Atlases, and other assorted neomythological strongmen, all played by a host of American bodybuilders.

2008, Gino Moliterno, Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema (Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts; 28), The Scarecrow Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 188:

(Roman mythology) The Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Jupiter and Alcmene, a celebrated hero who possessed exceptional strength. Most famous for his 12 labours performed to redeem himself after killing his family.

هِرَقْل

The Roman name of Heracles — see also Heracles


Andromeda

/ænˈdɹɒmɪdə/

/ænˈdɹɑmɪdə/

Borrowed from Latin Andromeda, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek Ἀνδρομέδα (Androméda), Ἀνδρομέδη (Andromédē).

(Greek mythology) The daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of Eritrea, rescued from her sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus by Perseus, who married her; mother of Perses, ancient king of Persia.


Hermes

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Hermes.wav

From the Ancient Greek Ἑρμῆς (Hermês), itself of disputed meaning and origin, possibly of non-Indo-European substrate or from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, put together”).

(Greek mythology) The herald and messenger of the gods, and the god of roads, commerce, invention, cunning, and theft.


Quirinus

(Roman mythology) An early Roman deity of possibly Sabine origin.


Diana

→ Hawaiian: Kiana
→ English: Kiana

→ Serbo-Croatian: Дајана, Dajana

→ Spanish: Dayana

Borrowed from Late Latin Diāna, short form of Latin Dīāna, derived by syncope from Old Latin Dīvāna, equivalent to dīvus + -āna; roughly akin to Proto-Italic *deiwā (“goddess”) + Proto-Indo-European *-néh₂.
Originally an Old Italic divinity of light and the moon; later identified as the Roman counterpart to Greek goddess Artemis. Cognate of Attic Greek Διώνη (Diṓnē), similarly syncopated from older Ancient Greek Διϝωνη (Diwōnē), whence via Latin Diōne is derived English Dione used in various ways across astronomy, chemistry, biology, and as a given name. From the same root Proto-Indo-European *dyúh₃onh₂- also potentially cognate to English June via Latin Jūnō.

So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and all the world worshippeth.

(Roman mythology) The daughter of Latona and Jupiter, and twin sister of Apollo; the goddess of the hunt, associated wild animals and the forest or wilderness, and an emblem of chastity; the Roman counterpart of Artemis.


Caca

(Roman mythology) goddess of the hearth.


salamander

/ˈsæləˌmɑːndə/

From Middle English salamandre, from Anglo-Norman salamandre, from Latin salamandra, from Ancient Greek σαλαμάνδρα (salamándra), of uncertain origin (per Beekes, likely Pre-Greek); possibly of Iranian origin, see Persian سمندر (samandar) for more information.

“Not a chance, Ranger,” Bob Mason was speaking. “This little cuss is a salamander. He's been travelling through fire all day and there isn't a blister on him. …”

1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter XI, in The Understanding Heart:

"There is a vulgar error," says the author of the Brief Natural History, p. 91, "that a salamander lives in the fire. Yet both Galen and Dioscorides refute this opinion; and Mathiolus, in his Commentaries upon Dioscorides, a very famous physician, affirms of them, that by casting of many a salamander into the fire for tryal he found it false. The same experiment is likewise avouched by Joubertus."

1849, John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of Our Vulgar and Provincial Customs, Ceremonies, and Superstitions, volume 3, page 372:

(mythology) A creature much like a lizard that is resistant to and lives in fire (in which it is often depicted in heraldry), hence the elemental being of fire.


weather balloon

en-noun

weather balloon (plural weather balloons)

(ufology, sarcastic) a skeptical explanation to debunk a UFO sighting that a believer regards as silly, illogical or disingenuous


faun

From Middle English fawn, from Latin faunus.

(Roman mythology) A woodland creature with pointed ears, legs, and short horns of a goat and a fondness for unrestrained revelry.


sorcerer

/ˈsɔːsəɹə(ɹ)/

From Middle English sorcerere, from Old French sorcier, from Early Medieval Latin sortiārius, derived from Latin sortem (“fate, fortune”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind”).

Pope Joan, who once occupied the throne of the Vatican, was reputed to be the blackest sorcerer of them all.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 105:

"Well, sorcerer?" growled the Norman. "Nay, not well," replied Catweazle shivering miserably, "I have the bone-ache."

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 7:

(mythology, folklore, fantasy) A magician or wizard. Sometimes specifically male.

yshtës

magician/wizard drawing upon natural powers


Althea

From Althaia or Althaea of Greek mythology, from Ancient Greek Ἀλθαία (Althaía).

(Greek mythology) an obscure goddess who was the personification of truth


Atem

(Egyptian mythology) Alternative form of Atum


Ash

en-proper noun

Ash (countable and uncountable, plural Ashes)

Ash (deity)
Ash (disambiguation)#Places
Ash (name)

(Egyptian mythology) The Egyptian god of oases.


Bast

(Egyptian mythology) Alternative spelling of Bastet


Hebe

From Ancient Greek Ἥβη (Hḗbē, literally “Youth, Prime of Life”).

uder

(Greek mythology) The goddess of youth, and a daughter of Zeus and Hera. Her Roman counterpart is Juventas.


Abu

(mythology) A minor god of vegetation in Sumerian mythology.


Argo

From Latin Argo, from Ancient Greek Ἀργώ (Argṓ), the mythical ship of the Argonauts.

(Greek mythology) The ship in which Jason and the Argonauts sailed on their quest for the Golden Fleece.


Ajax

From Latin Aiāx, from Ancient Greek Αἴας (Aías).

In the legend of the Trojan War, Ajax was king of Salamis and son of Telamon. After Achilles, he was the bravest Greek warrior at Troy. In Homer's epic poem the Iliad, Ajax engages in many combats for...

1995, David Sacks, Oswyn Murray, A Dictionary of the Ancient Greek World, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN, page 11:

(Greek mythology) Either of two heroes of the Trojan War.


Ask

From Old Norse Askr, from askr (“ash tree”).

(Norse mythology) The first male human, according to the Poetic Edda.


Aba

(Greek mythology) a Thracian naiad nymph


feng shui

Borrowed from Mandarin 風水／风水 (fēngshuǐ, “feng shui (Chinese system of geomancy)”, literally “wind and water”): 風／风 (fēng, “wind”) + 水 (shuǐ, “water”). Doublet of fung shui.

bor

On my telling two missionaries here lately that this Government would not allow a road to be made to their coal mines because it would obstruct the Feng-shui, they only laughed at it. [...] The upper classes may have Feng-shui, and use it when it suits them, as the Government do; but they also, when it suits their purpose, have no difficulty in overcoming the Feng Shui.

1869 March 15, “Summary of news from the Far East. China. Tientsin.”, in The London and China Telegraph, Japan Herald, and Journal of the Eastern Archipelago, French mail edition, volume XI, number 315, London: Printed for the proprietors by Richard Kindee, […], and published by James West […], published 7 June 1869, →OCLC, page 258, column 2:

When the Hongkong Government cut a road, now known as the Gap, to the Happy Valley, the Chinese community was thrown into a state of abject terror and fright, on account of the disturbance which this amputation of the dragon's limbs would cause to the Feng-shui of Hongkong; and when many of the engineers, employed at the cutting, died of the Hongkong fever, and the foreign houses already built in the Happy Valley had to be deserted on account of malaria, the Chinese triumphantly declared, it was an act of retributory justice on the part of Feng-shui.

1873, Ernest J. Eitel [i.e., Ernst Johann Eitel], “Introductory”, in Feng-shui: Or, The Rudiments of Natural Science in China, London: Trübner & Co., →OCLC, page 2:

Feng-Shui views heaven and earth, the whole universe, as one great fetich, animated by a blind unintelligent but omnipotent vitality, a vitality in which man shares, and of which, by the exercise of his intelligent faculties, he may procure a larger and better share than would otherwise fall to his lot. As a practical art, Feng-Shui is the terrestrial sister of Astrology, a mode of deciphering the destinies of an individual as included in the vast complications of the universal whole, but in this respect the earthly sister excels her star-gazing prototype, that by means of Feng-Shui a man learns not only what his fate is, but how it may be modified to his own advantage.

1874 March, F. S. T., “Feng-Shui”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume XXIX, number 171, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 343:

The following are translated copies of placards which have been extensively posted in the city and suburbs during the past week: [...] "[...] On recovering our Feng Shui land, then the state will be prosperous, the people peaceable, the winds moderate, and the rains favorable. Let all the people exert themselves."

1878 September 15, “Mr. [M. M.] De Lano to Mr. Holcombe. [Inclosure 3 in No. 61; No. 111; The Wu Shih Shan Riot. Placards.]”, in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, with the Annual Message of the President, December 1, 1879. […], Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, published 1879, →OCLC, page 187:

The question of the Channel Tunnel has been discussed from many points of view, commercial, naval, military; and all that can be said on the subject from a scientific or statistical standpoint has probably been exhausted. But the final clinching argument is that the tunnel would destroy our insular position; and it is there that the Press carries public opinion with it. We cannot have our insular position destroyed. The sea is England's glory and the wind and the waves her portion and her heritage, and shall these advantages be abated for the sake of a hole under the sea and a devil carriage to roar through it? Never, says John Bull; and doubtless his instinct is right. But if that isn't belief in feng-shui, which means precisely wind and water, one humble scribe would like to know what is.

1913 December 20, “The Memories of the Unattainable”, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette: The Weekly Edition of the North-China Daily News, volume CIX (New Series), number 2419, Shanghai: Printed and published at the offices of the North-China Daily News & Herald, Ld., →OCLC, pages 904–905:

An example of public acknowledgement by Government of the legitimacy of feng-shui disputes in the Tsuen Wan area [in Hong Kong] concerned the objections of villagers in Sheung Kwai Chung to the construction of a salt water service reservoir. It was claimed that the construction of this reservoir on a ridge behind the village would adversely affect the village's feng-shui because the veins of the "green dragon" protecting the village would be severed.

1968 July, Baruch Boxer, “Space, Change and Feng-shui in Tsuen Wan’s Urbanization”, in K. Ishwaran, editor, Journal of Asian and African Studies, volume 3, numbers 3–4, Leiden: E[vert] J[an] Brill, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 231–232:

(Chinese mythology) A system of spiritual energies, both good and evil, present in the natural features of landscapes.

風水

system of spiritual energies present in the natural features of landscapes


Chronus

(Greek mythology) Alternative form of Chronos.


Calypso

(Greek mythology) A sea nymph who entertained Odysseus on her island, Ogygia, for seven years.


Aura

en-proper noun

Aura (countable and uncountable, plural Auras)

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A minor female deity.


Echidna

From Ancient Greek Ἔχιδνα (Ékhidna, “Echidna”), from ἔχιδνα (ékhidna, “viper”).

der

Horrible, hideous, and of hellish race, / Borne of the brooding of Echidna base, / Or other like infernall furies kinde […].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(Greek mythology) A female monster who, along with Typhon, mothered the vast majority of the famous monsters and creatures of Greek mythology.


Chaos

From Latin chaos (“chaos”), from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

19521 Chaos
Chaos (Warhammer)
Chaos (cosmogony)

(Greek mythology) In Greek mythology, the primordial state of disorder that exists before the creation of the world, or the first being or deity to exist.


Dike

From Ancient Greek Δίκη (Díkē, literally “Justice, Order, Judgement”).

bor

(Greek mythology) The goddess/personification of justice, order and judgement and one of the Horae. She is a daughter of Zeus and Themis, and her sisters are Eirene and Eunomia. Her Roman counterpart is Justitia.


Fauna

Feminine form of Faunus.
Some refer it to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₂w-, whence Ancient Greek θαῦνον (thaûnon, “beast”), Illyrian-related Daunus. Some refer it to faveō.

(Roman mythology) The goddess of animals, nature, spring and fertility; she is also the consort of Faunus.


Fury

Friom Middle English Furie, from Latin Furiae, a name used for the three Erinyes, being the plural of furia ("rage").

“I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera,[…]the speed-mad fugitives from the furies of ennui, the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis,[…]!”

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

(Greek mythology) A female personification of vengeance.


Argonaut

/ˈɑːrɡənɔːt/

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἀργοναύτης (Argonaútēs).

(Greek mythology) One of the members of the Argo who sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece.


Ether

From Old French ether, from Latin aether (“the upper pure, bright air”), from Ancient Greek αἰθήρ (aithḗr, “upper air”), from αἴθω (aíthō, “I burn, shine”). Doublet of Aether.

der

(Roman mythology) The god-personification of the bright, glowing upper air of heaven. He is the Roman counterpart of Aether.


Calliope

From Latin Calliope, from Ancient Greek Καλλιόπη (Kalliópē), from κᾰλλῐ- (kalli-, “beautiful”) + ὄψ (óps, “voice”).

(Greek mythology) The Muse of eloquence and epic or heroic poetry; the mother of Orpheus with Apollo.


Harmonia

(Greek mythology) The goddess of harmony and concord, and the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia.


Draco

Borrowed from Latin Dracō, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek Δρᾰ́κων (Drákōn). Doublet of dracone, dragon, and dragoon.

Draco
Draco (constellation)
Draco (lawgiver)
Draco Dwarf

(Greek mythology) One of Actaeon's hounds.


Eros

I'm not just talking about sexually transmitted diseases, though Eros-knows there's precious little information about them available to gay men.

1981 August 1, Ron Vachon, “To Your Health”, in Gay Community News, page 13:

(Greek mythology) The god of love and sexual desire; son of either Erebus and Nyx or Aphrodite and Ares. His Roman counterpart is Cupid.


Cygnus

Borrowed from Latin cygnus (“swan”), from Ancient Greek κύκνος (kúknos, “swan”).

(Greek mythology) A king of the Ligurians and relative of Phaeton who was transformed into a swan and placed in the sky as a constellation.


Apollo

From Latin Apollō, from Ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων (Apóllōn).

‘Blue are the hills that are far away,’ is an owercome in the countryside, and while at first on his side it may have been but a young man’s fancy, to her he was like the god Apollo descending from the skies.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The son of Zeus and Leto (or Jupiter and Latona), and the twin brother of Artemis (or Diana). He was the god of light, music, medicine, and poetry; and prophecy, dance, manly beauty, and more.


Echo

60 Echo
Alexandre Cabanel
Echo (mythology)

(Greek mythology) An oread, punished by Hera by losing her own voice and only being able to mimic that of others.


Heaven

What Heaven has conferred is called the Nature...

1893, James Legge, transl., The Doctrine of the Mean:

...‘Heaven’ as we use it throughout the book is only a convenient but inaccurate translation of the Chinese character tian. Heaven in Chinese religions as well as in the Confucian tradition has multidimensional implications... In its metaphysical and physical connotation, Heaven... refers to... Nature. Applied in the spiritual realm, it signifies an anthropomorphic Lord or a Supreme Being who presides in Heaven, and rules over or governs directly the spiritual and material worlds.

2000, Yao Xinzhong, An Introduction to Confucianism, page 142:

It was not just the sky, but a god with wills and intentions, seen as sovereign of all... In fact, "Tian" was another reverent term to address the supreme god: "Heaven, for the help of the inferior people, made for them rulers, and made for them instructors" ("Great Declaration I" in the Book of History)...

2018, Zhuo Xinping, Religious Faith of the Chinese, page 58:

(Chinese mythology, semantic translation of 天 (tiān)) The supreme God or Nature which controls the universe.


Hymen

From Latin Hymēn, from Ancient Greek Ῡ̔μήν (Hūmḗn).

"By the saffron robe of Hymen," cried Lord Norbourne, "but that would be a blessing! I own that I am no great friend to marriage in general; […] If a young man has his way to make in the world, a wife is a dead weight upon his hands.[…]"

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Proposal of Marriage”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 131:

(Greek mythology) The god of marriage and marriage ceremonies.


Ki

(religion, mythology, Sumerian religion) In Sumerian mythology, the earth goddess and chief consort of the sky god, Anu.


Limos

From Ancient Greek Λῑμός (Līmós), from Ancient Greek λῑμός (līmós, “hunger, famine, starvation”).

uder

(Greek mythology) A child of Eris, Limos is the deity/personification of famine and starvation. The Roman counterpart is Fames.


Herne

Unknown. Suggested by R. Lowe Thompson to derive from Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“horn”), which would mean it is related to English horn. Others have suggested that it comes from Old English Herian (literally “warrior-leader”), which is a name for Woden. Another theory is that it derives from the surname Horne.

der

(mythology) Herne the Hunter, an English mythological figure; an antlered ghost associated with Windsor Forest and Great Park in the English county of Berkshire.


Kale

From Ancient Greek Καλή (Kalḗ, literally “beauty”), see καλός (kalós, “beautiful”).


Kraken

Borrowed from Norwegian kraken (Bokmål entry; Nynorsk entry), definite singular of krake (“wooden drag/grapnel”) (Bokmål entry; Nynorsk entry), both from Old Norse kraki (“wooden drag/grapnel”, literally “crookie: something with crooks/hooks”), from Proto-Germanic *krankaz (“crooked”).

der

(Norse mythology) A colossal sea monster that attacks ships and sailors, often portrayed as a giant octopus or squid.


Flora

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Flora.wav

From Latin Flōra (Roman goddess of flowers).

(Roman mythology) the goddess of flowers, nature and spring; she is also the wife of Favonius and the mother of Karpos. She is the Roman counterpart of Chloris.


Ion

(Greek mythology) Son of Creusa and Xuthus, and the ancestor of Ionian people.


Leto

en:68 Leto
en:Leto
en:Leto (disambiguation)
en:Leto (surname)

en-proper noun

Leto (countable and uncountable, plural Letos)

(uncountable, Greek mythology) Leto, in Greek mythology, the mother of Apollo and Artemis.


Minotaur

/ˈmɪnəˌtɔː(ɹ)/

/ˈmaɪnəˌtɑɹ/

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Μινώταυρος (Minṓtauros), from Μίνως (Mínōs, “king of Crete”) + ταῦρος (taûros, “bull”).

bor+

(Greek mythology) A monster, half man and half bull, who dwelled in the labyrinth in Crete and who was killed by Theseus.


Hector

From Latin Hectōr or Ancient Greek Ἕκτωρ (Héktōr), from ἕκτωρ (héktōr, “holding fast”), from ἔχειν (ékhein), present active infinitive of ἔχω (ékhō, “to have, own, possess; to hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *seǵʰ- (“to hold; to overpower”).

der

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A Trojan hero in Homer's Iliad.


Mors

(Roman mythology) The god and personification of death; the Roman counterpart of Thanatos.


Noman

(Greek mythology) An alias of Odysseus Laërtiadês


Myrmidon

From Latin Myrmidones, from Ancient Greek Μυρμιδόνες (Murmidónes), a tribe of warriors led by Achilles to the Trojan War. Folk etymology in Ovid's time derived the tribe's name from μυρμηδών (murmēdṓn, “ant-nest”), from μύρμηξ (múrmēx, “ant”)).

The Myrmidons were the soldiers of Achilles, in the Trojan war. From them all zealous and unscrupulous followers of a political chief are called by that name, down to this day. But the origin of the Myrmidons would not give one the idea of a fierce and bloody race, but rather of a laborious and peaceful one.

1855, Thomas Bulfinch, chapter XII, in The Age of Fable:

(Greek mythology) One of a fierce tribe or troop who accompanied Achilles, their king, in the Trojan War.

Myrmidone

member of a tribe who accompanied Achilles


Myrmidon

(Greek mythology) The ancestral hero of the Myrmidon tribe, son of Zeus and Eurymedusa.


Narcissus

From Latin Narcissus, from Ancient Greek Νάρκισσος (Nárkissos, “Narcissus”).

At the beginning of his narrative, Ishmael mentions Narcissus, the legendary character who plunged into the water and was drowned in the attempt to grasp his own essence (p. 14). Narcissus was unwilling to understand the relationship between himself and “the ungraspable phantom of life” in gradualistic terms and sought to bring that relationship to immediate closure, thus annihilating himself.

1982, Carl G. Vaught, The Quest for Wholeness, page 25:

We may now affirm that Plato's cave is inhabited by Narcissus. He already knows, but the knowledge he possesses is still a bit confused, obscure (this knowledge is situated in the caves of the memory, a dark space much like Narcissus’s place).

1994, Ronald Bogue, Mihai Spariosu, The Play of the Self, page 34:

Narcissus, as the myth has it, died because, unlike Lacan's child, he did not recognize himself; nor did he perceive the mirror for what it was: a boundary between reality and fiction.¹⁵

1999, Mieke Bal, Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History, page 237:

(Greek mythology) A youth who spurned the love of Echo and fell in love with his own reflection in a pool: in some versions of the myth, he drowned trying to reach it, while in others he sat fixated until a god took pity and transformed him into a flower.


Nox

(Roman mythology) The Roman goddess of night.


Not

(Egyptian mythology) Alternative spelling of Nut.


Panacea

From Ancient Greek Πανακεια (Panakeia, literally “all-curing”).

bor

(Greek mythology) The goddess/personification of healing, remedies, cures and panaceas (medicines, salves, ointments and other curatives). She is a daughter of Asclepius and Epione.


Iris

From Ancient Greek Ἶρις (Îris, “rainbow”).

What's the matter,
 That this distemper'd messenger of wet,
 The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye?

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

(Greek mythology) A messenger of the gods, and goddess of rainbows.


Nu

Borrowed from Egyptian nnw (“Nu, the primeval waters”).

(Egyptian mythology) The god who serves as the personification of the primeval waters that existed before the world.


Phaëthon

Borrowed from Latin Phaëthōn, from the Ancient Greek Φᾰέθων (Phaéthōn).

(Greek mythology) the son of the sun god Helios who was killed by Zeus while trying to drive his father's chariot across the sky


Nemesis

From Ancient Greek Νέμεσις (Némesis, “Nemesis, goddess of retribution”).

Coordinate term: Invidia

(Greek mythology) The goddess of divine retribution.


Io

(Greek mythology) The daughter of Inachus river god, and a lover of Zeus, turned by the latter into a heifer.


Hydra

[ˈhaɪ̯d͡ʒɹə]

From Latin Hydra, the mythical serpent, originally from Ancient Greek ὕδρα (húdra), from Proto-Indo-European *údreh₂ (“aquatic”). Doublet of otter.

(Greek mythology) A mythological serpent with many heads, slain by Hercules as one of his twelve labours.


Melissa

From Ancient Greek μέλισσα (mélissa, “bee, honey, or honeybee”). In Ireland it is sometimes used as a feminine form of the Gaelic male name Maol Íosa (literally “servant of Jesus”).

der

(Greek mythology) Bee-nymph in Greek mythology.


Atlas

en-proper noun

Atlas (countable and uncountable, plural Atlases)

From Latin Ā̆tlās, from Ancient Greek Ἄτλας (Átlas), either from ἁ- (ha-, copulative prefix) + Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“bear, undergo, endure”) or of Pre-Greek origin.

der

(Greek mythology) The son of Iapetus and Clymene, war leader of the Titans ordered by the god Zeus to support the sky on his shoulders; father to the Hesperides, the Hyades, and the Pleiades; king of the legendary Atlantis.


Gemini

/ˈd͡ʒɛmɪnaɪ/

/ˈd͡ʒɛmɪniː/

Borrowed from Latin geminī, plural of geminus (“twin”), calque of Ancient Greek Δίδυμοι (Dídumoi).

calque

(Greek mythology) The twin brothers Castor and Pollux together.


Aurora

/ʔaʊ̯ˈɾo.ɾɐ/

Aurora (disambiguation)
Gérard de Lairesse
Manuel Quezon

Ultimately from Latin Aurōra. The Philippine placenames were named after First Lady Aurora Quezon, the wife of Pres. Manuel Quezon, the 2nd president of the Philippines.

As faire Aurora in her purple pall, / Out of the East the dawning day doth call […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16:

(Roman mythology) Roman goddess of the dawn; equivalent of the Greek Eos. Sister of Luna and Sol.


Priapus

From Latin Priāpus, from Ancient Greek Πρίαπος (Príapos).

(Greek mythology) The son of Aphrodite and Dionysus, god of procreation, and guardian of gardens and vineyards; personification of the phallus.


Perse

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Περση (Persē, literally “Persian woman”).

bor+

(Greek mythology) An Oceanid, (one of the three thousand daughters of the Titans' Oceanus and Tethys), and the wife of the sun god, Helios, by whom she is the mother of Aeetes, Perses, Pasiphae, and Circe. One of her many sisters is Amphitrite, (the wife of Poseidon). Perse is also closely identified with Hecate.


Re

Meaning borrowed from Egyptian r:a-ra (rꜥ, “sun, Ra”), with the form of the word borrowed from Coptic ⲣⲏ (rē, “sun”).

bor

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">rꜥ</i>

(Egyptian mythology) Alternative form of Ra


Sia

(Egyptian mythology) An ancient Egyptian god, the personification of perception.


Phoebe

Borrowed from Latin Phoebē, from Ancient Greek Φοίβη (Phoíbē), feminine form of Φοῖβος (Phoîbos, “bright”).

(Greek mythology) A Titan, goddess of the moon, sister-wife of Coeus, and daughter of Uranus and Gaia.

(Greek mythology) An epithet and synonym for Selene; Phoebe Selene, after her maternal aunt, Phoebe (see above).

(Greek mythology) An epithet and synonym for Artemis; Phoebe Artemis, after her maternal grandmother, Phoebe (see above).


Psyche

From Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, literally “Soul, Spirit”).

uder

(Greek mythology, Roman mythology) The personification of the soul. Originally a mortal princess who later married Eros/Cupid, (the god of love), was deified, and bore him a daughter, Hedone/Voluptas.


Luna

From Middle English lune, luna (“the moon”), from Latin lūna/Lūna, from Proto-Indo-European *lówksneh₂. Doublet of Roxane.

(Roman mythology) The sister of Aurora and Sol; the goddess of the moon; equivalent to the Greek Selene.


Phoenix

From Latin phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνῐξ (phoînix), Φοῖνῐξ (Phoînix).

(mythology) A mythical firebird; especially the sacred one from ancient Egyptian mythology.

(Greek mythology) A character in the Iliad and father of Adonis in Greek mythology or a different character in Greek mythology, brother of Europa and Cadmus.


Terminus

Learned borrowing from Latin terminus (“a boundary or border, a limit or point”). Doublet of terminus and term.

lbor

(Roman mythology) The god of boundaries and landmarks, focus of the important Roman festival of Terminalia.


Trivia

(Roman mythology) An aspect of the Roman goddess Diana, pertaining to her role as guardian of trivia (crossroads or forks where three roads meet); used as an epithet.


Te

From Coptic ⲧⲏ (tē), from Egyptian d-wA-t:dwAt (“dwꜣt”). Doublet of Duat.

der

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">dwꜣt</i>

(Egyptology, Egyptian mythology) The realm of the dead in Egyptian mythology.


Ra

Transcription of Egyptian r:a-ra (rꜥ, “the sun; Ra”).

(Egyptian mythology) The Egyptian god of the Sun.


Rhea

(Greek mythology) A Titan, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, the mother of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus.


Zu

(mythology) A lesser divinity of Akkadian mythology, and the son of the bird goddess Siris.


Tellus

Borrowed from Latin tellus (“Earth, globe, world”), from Proto-Italic *telnos, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *telnos ~ *telnes-, from *telh₂- (“flat ground”), but reshaped after rūs. Otherwise, could derive from Etruscan 𐌕𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌓 (tular, “earth”).

bor+

Perhaps the Custome of the Beggars, throwing the remainder of drinke out of the Dish on the Ground, may be derived from an Ethnick sacrifice to Tellus.

1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 37:

Now they could see what the guide was telling them: that the pillars supporting the frontage were of red granite, mined in Sweden, flanked at either end by golden statues of Atlas and Tellus, bearing on their shoulders spheres depicting the heavens and the earth.

1992, Robert Harris, Fatherland, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 27:

(Roman mythology) The goddess of the Earth in Roman mythology.


Terra

From Latin Terra (“goddess of the earth; the land itself”).

uder

interpretatio graeca
interpretatio graeca

(Roman mythology) The Roman earth goddess, equivalent in the interpretatio graeca to Gaea.


Sphinx

From Middle English Spynx, from Ancient Greek Σφίγξ (Sphínx), perhaps from σφίγγω (sphíngō, “bind tightly, to strangle”). The appurtenance of Egyptian Szp:p-A53 (šzp, “image, statue, sphinx”) or Szp:p-A53-anx-n:x (šzp-ꜥnḫ, “living image”) remains unclear.

cog

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">šzp</i>

(Greek mythology) One of the many offspring of Typhon and Echidna, a winged lion-like creature with a woman's face, who committed suicide out of frustration after Oedipus managed to solve her riddles.


Set

Borrowed from Coptic ⲥⲏⲧ (sēt), from Egyptian s-t:X (stẖ).

(Egyptian mythology) An ancient Egyptian god, variously described as the god of chaos, the god of thunder and storms, or the god of destruction.


Zephyr

For a Tempeſt. Take Eurus, Zephyr, Auſter and Boreas, and caſt them together in one Verſe. Add to theſe of Rain, Lightning, and of Thunder (the loudeſt you can) quantum ſufficit. Mix your Clouds and Billows well together till they foam, and thicken your Deſcription here and there with a Quickſand. Brew your Tempeſt well in your Head, before you ſet it a blowing.

1714 June 10, [Alexander Pope], The Guardian, volume I, number 78, London: Printed for J[acob] Tonson, at Shakespear's-Head over-against Catherine-street in the Strand, page 332:

(Greek mythology) The god of the West Wind.


Sol

(Roman mythology) The sun god; equivalent of the Greek Helios. Brother of Luna and Aurora.


Coeus

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Κοῖος (Koîos, “Coeus”).

(Greek mythology) The Titan of intelligence; the father of Leto and Asteria.


Theia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Θεία (Theía).

(Greek mythology) A Titan, the sister-wife of Hyperion.

(Greek mythology) An Oceanid nymph (daughter of Oceanus and Tethys), the mother of the Cercopes by Oceanus.


Mnemosyne

From Ancient Greek Μνημοσύνη (Mnēmosúnē).

(Greek mythology) A Titaness and the personification of thought, intellect and memory. She is the daughter of Gaia and Uranus, and the mother of the Muses by Zeus.


Hyperion

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Hyperion.wav

(Greek mythology) A Titan, the son of Gaia and Uranus and the father of Helios, Selene and Eos.

(Greek mythology) Helios himself, the incarnation of light and beauty.


Crius

(Greek mythology) A Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia.


Themis

(Greek mythology) A Titan, the embodiment of divine order, law and custom. She was the daughter of Gaia and Uranus.


Iapetus

From Ancient Greek Ἰαπετός (Iapetós).
* (moon): Named after the titan.
* (ocean): The Iapetus Ocean was the predecessor to the Atlantic Ocean, so this name was chosen because Iapetus is the father of Atlas (see Atlantic).

Alternative forms: Japetus, Iapetos

(Greek mythology) A Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius.


Titaness

(Greek mythology) A female Titan, any of the daughters of Uranus and Gaia.


Titan

(Greek mythology) Any of the race of giant gods in Greek mythology that preceded and was overthrown by the Olympian gods.


Titan

(Greek mythology) Another name for Helios, a personification of the Sun.


Pan

From Middle English Pan, from Latin Pān, form Ancient Greek Πάν (Pán).

(Greek mythology) Greek god of nature, often visualized as half goat and half man playing pipes. His Roman counterpart is Faunus.


Mercury

Inherited from Middle English Mercurie, from Latin Mercurius.

(Roman mythology) The Roman god associated with speed, sometimes used as a messenger, wearing winged sandals; the Roman counterpart of the Greek god Hermes.


wheel of Fortune

I hold the Fates bound faſt in yron chaines,
And with my hand turne Fortunes wheel about,
And ſooner ſhall the Sun fall from his Spheare,
Than Tamburlaine be ſlaine or ouercome.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

I was young enough not to part with hope too easily; — the vague idea I had that my turn would come, — that the ever-circling wheel of Fortune would perchance lift me up some day as it now crushed me down,[…]

1895, Marie Corelli, The Sorrows of Satan, →OCLC, page 8:

(mythology, philosophy) The mythological wheel whose turns, which are random, determine men’s fortunes.


lamia

From Latin lamia, from Ancient Greek Λάμια (Lámia).

Apollonius […] by some probable conjectures, found her out to be a serpent, a lamia, and that all her furniture was like Tantalus' gold described by Homer, no substance, but mere illusions.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III, section 2, member 1, subsection i:

(Greek mythology) A monster preying upon human beings, who sucked the blood of children, often described as having the head and breasts of a woman and the lower half of a serpent.


Ixion

From Latin Ixīōn, from Ancient Greek Ἰξίων (Ixíōn, literally “strong native”).

der

As to fitfulness, I have never learnt the art of binding myself to any of the wheels on which the Ixions of these days are turning round and round.

1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

The complicated conjunction and adverb “ut” also looms. Mr. Butterfield said that it is “the sort of infernal business that would make Sisyphus and Ixion smile kindly on the job satisfaction they got from their daily toil,” referring to figures from classical mythology forced to labor in pain for eternity.

2019 November 30, Annalisa Quinn, “Latin Dictionary’s Journey: A to Zythum in 125 Years (and Counting)”, in New York Times:

(Greek mythology) King of Lapiths, who was punished by Zeus for trying to seduce Hera by being bound to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning.


mogwai

From Cantonese 魔怪 (mo1 gwaai3), 魔鬼 (mo1 gwai2).

(Chinese mythology) A kind of demon held to be harmful to humans.


Styx

A bold bad man, that dar'd to call by name / Great Gorgon, prince of darknes and dead night, / At which Cocytus quakes and Styx is put to flight.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 13:

For two-and-twenty years he [Doctor Guillotin], unguillotined, shall hear nothing but guillotine, see nothing but guillotine; then dying, shall through long centuries wander, as it were, a disconsolate ghost, on the wrong side of Styx and Lethe; his name like to outlive Cæsar’s.

1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IV, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (States-General):

Bornless one / As darkness bright / Found not in tongues / Found not in light / Bring down the rain / Drain waters of Styx / Faustian luminary / Redeem blaspheme / Like a day without the dawn / Like a ray void of the sun / Like a storm that brings no calm / I'm most complete yet so undone

2014, “O Father O Satan O Sun!”, performed by Behemoth:

(Greek mythology) The river, in Hades, over which the souls of the dead are ferried by Charon.


ARV

alien reproduction vehicle
alien reproduction vehicle#English

(ufology) Initialism of alien reproduction vehicle.


Jovian

en-adj

Jovian (comparative more Jovian, superlative most Jovian)

more Jovian (comparative)
most Jovian (superlative)

From Latin Iovis, genitive of Iuppiter, analysable as Jove + -ian.

Near-synonym: Zeusian

He did not admit of equals. But as a patron he was superb. With his Jovian air, his colossal condescension, his amused smile, his general suggestion of the god descending to the mortal, he could be quite overpowering in his amiability.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

(Roman mythology) Pertaining to the Roman god Jove or Jupiter (the counterpart of the Greek god Zeus); Jove-like; befitting Jupiter.


Neptunian

From Latin Neptūnius (“of or pertaining to the Roman god Neptune”), from Neptūnus (“the Roman god Neptune”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nebʰ- (“to become damp, cloudy”)) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns); analysable as Neptune + -ian. The English word is cognate with French neptunien (“pertaining to the Roman god Neptune, pertaining to the sea, pertaining to Neptunism, Neptunian; proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”), German Neptunier (“proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”).

cog

Near-synonym: Poseidonian

The Tomb disburd'ning, whence the Ghoſt aroſe / Of great Achilles; Such when Thracian Foes / (The Prelude of thy Fates, Troy!) he o'rethrew, / And the white hair'd Neptunian Cycnus [i.e., Neptune's son] ſlew.

1679, Lucius Annaeus Seneca [i.e., Seneca the Younger], translated by Edward Sherburne, Troades: Or The Royal Captives. A Tragedy, Written Originally in Latin, […], London: Printed by Anne Godbid, and John Playford, for Samuel Carr, […], →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 21:

(Roman mythology) Of or pertaining to Neptune, the Roman god of fresh water and the sea, the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon.


Mars

From Middle English Mars, from Latin Mārs (“god of war”), from older Latin (older than 75 BCE) Māvors.

Mars was the lover of Venus, and together they had a daughter called Harmonia.


Álfheimr

(Norse mythology) home of the Ljósálfar (Light Elves) and one of the nine realms, also called Ljosalfheim.


Asgard

Learned borrowing from Old Norse Ásgarðr.

lbor

The gods built themselves castles in Asgard, and halls that shone with gold. It is recorded that there were twelve such heavenly palaces, but the poems differ from each other in describing them.

1884, M. W. Macdowall, Asgard and the gods, […] , page 48:

So, for instance, when the giant Hrungnir became tediously drunk and boastful, it was Freyja who, of all the Æsir in Asgard, was bold enough to keep serving him drink, but equally it was she whom he threatened to take away with him.

2007, Heather O'Donoghue, From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 48:

(Norse mythology) The realm of the Æsir gods.


Helen

en-proper noun

Helen (countable and uncountable, plural Helens)

→ Danish: Helen

→ Estonian: Helen

→ Hawaiian: Helena

→ Norwegian: Helen

→ Swedish: Helen

From French Hélène, from Latin Helena, from Ancient Greek Ἑλένη (Helénē). Doublet of Elaine.

Evelyn De Morgan
Helen of Troy (painting)

Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

(Greek mythology) The daughter of Zeus and Leda, considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world; her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War.

Հեղինե

(Greek mythology) the daughter of Zeus and Leda